When Joseph was on trial for this same offense before Judge Douglass, on a writ of _habeas corpus_ in 1841, as already related in a previous chapter, the court refused to enter into the consideration of the merits of the case, as the judge doubted whether on a writ of _habeas corpus_ he had a right to go behind the writ and inquire into the merits of the case. The same point was avoided by Judge Pope in the hearing Joseph had before him on a similar writ, when charged with being accessory before the fact in an assault upon the life of ex-Governor Boggs. But the municipal court had no such scruples, and at once proceeded to try the case _ex parte_, on its merits; and Hyrum Smith, P. P. Pratt, Brigham Young, G. W. Pitkin, Lyman Wight and Sidney Rigdon were examined as witnesses. Their affidavits before that court concerning events that happened to the Saints in Missouri, afford the most circumstantial, reliable, and exhaustive data for the history of The Church while in that State that has ever been published. After hearing the testimony of these witnesses, and the pleading of counsel, the court ordered that Joseph Smith be released from the arrest and imprisonment of which he complained, for want of substance in the warrant by which he was held, as well as upon the merits of the case. At the conclusion of the trial the citizens of Nauvoo held a mass meeting and passed resolutions thanking the people of Dixon and vicinity, and of Lee County generally, for the stand they had taken in defense of the innocent, and in favor of law and justice. A copy of the proceedings of the municipal court of Nauvoo, and of all the papers connected with the case were immediately sent to the governor, as also were affidavits from leading counsel and gentlemen from Dixon, as to the treatment of Wilson and Reynolds, that the governor and the world might know that they had not been injured. We may conclude the account of this adventure of Joseph's by saying that about a year afterwards, a jury in Lee County awarded forty dollars damages, and costs, against Wilson and Reynolds, for false imprisonment and abuse of the Prophet--a verdict which, while it confirms the unlawful course of those officers, and the fact that their prisoner was abused, insults justice by awarding such an amount for damages. At the time of this action before the municipal court of Nauvoo, it was a question in Illinois whether said court had the authority to hear and determine writs of _habeas corpus_ arising from arrests made by virtue of warrants issued by the courts of the State or of the governor, as in the foregoing case; or whether the clause in the city charter granting the right of issuing such writs was not confined to cases arising from arrests made on account of the violation of some city ordinance. The clause in the charter giving to the municipal court the power to issue writs of _habeas corpus_ was as follows: